Archive for the ‘Consumer activism’ Category

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Bill Groome, of Madhatter Magic Shop, threatens to sue over uncomplimentary blog posting

Tuesday, January 31st, 2012

I received the following email this morning from Bill Groome, the owner of Madhatter Magic Shop, about whom I’ve written previously and who has posted several comments on my blog (along with one of his employees) which if anything make him look even worse than what I wrote about him:

Subject:     Re: Lawsuit
Date:     Tue, 31 Jan 2012 08:41:49 -0500
From:     Bill Groome <bgroome1012@gmail.com>
To:     <elliottlawgrp@bellsouth.net>
CC:     <jik@kamens.us>

Hi Tom,
It has been a while. Hope this email finds you well.
There is a blog about myself and my business that categorizes me as a “crook and a liar”. This blog is designed and tagged in such a manner as to follow my business on search engines. The blog is intended to smear myself and damage my business. The blog contains inaccurate information of which I have evidence to the contrary.
Here is the blog: http://blog.kamens.us/2010/03/08/bill-groome-owner-of-madhatter-magic-shop-lies-to-me-about-a-product-and-then-refuses-to-refund-my-money/

I have copied Mr. Kamens on this email so that he is fully aware of my intent. I wish to file a lawsuit against Mr. Kamens for damages.
I will call you this afternoon to discuss this matter, or feel free to call me at your convenience.

Best Regards,
Bill Groome
1-866-333-9450

(more…)

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Some final words about Winters Plumbing

Thursday, January 19th, 2012

I have written previously about the problems I had with Winters Plumbing when they replaced the heating system in my house. I wanted to post an update because while I still wouldn’t recommend them, they’ve done some things to address my complaints which they deserve to get credit for.

  • They fixed the duct opening which their subcontractor made too small, and replaced the screw in the duct cover that was damaged when I had to unscrew the cover from its frame because the frame was wedged to tightly into the too-small opening.
  • They fixed the air leaking from the furnace manifold.
  • At their expense, they replaced the whole-house humidifier that was wasting a huge amount of water, with a Humid-a-Mist humidifier that doesn’t.

(more…)

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Honda Village fires us as a customer

Wednesday, January 18th, 2012

Long-time readers of my blog may remember my multiple postings about Honda Village in Newton, Massachusetts. You can read the whole series of Honda Village postings here.

(more…)

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We love A-Z Auto Center

Wednesday, January 18th, 2012

I want to give a loud shout-out to our favorite auto-body shop and service station, A-Z Auto Center in Brighton, MA.

My wife and I have used them numerous times for many different services, including routine maintenance (e.g., oil and filter), auto-body work, repairing a broken automatic minivan door, and tire repair and replacement.

In all cases they have been friendly, responsive, and affordable and have delivered high-quality work on time.

Here are two examples of how great they are:

1. We needed a couple of body panels repaired and repainted after someone borrowing our minivan ran it into the side of his garage door (d’oh!). Stadium Auto Body said that all of the damaged panels would have to be replaced and gave us an estimate of $2,400. A-Z repaired the existing panels — no replacement parts needed — for only $860. While they were at it, they detailed the interior of the minivan at no extra charge!

2. Herb Chambers Honda said it would cost $400 to fix one of our automatic minivan doors, which was repeatedly sticking when we tried to open or close it. A-Z did the repair for only $169.

In all of our dealings with A-Z, it has felt like they were being completely honest and up-front with us. Not once have we gotten that unpleasant feeling, so common with car-repair places, that they were trying to jack up the price of a repair or sell us something we didn’t need. In short, these guys are great, and we heartily recommend them!

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Posted in Boston, Consumer activism, Consumer Activism Hall of Fame | No Comments »

Phone phishing scam of the day

Tuesday, October 18th, 2011

I got a call on my cell phone at about 2:20pm (US/Eastern) today whose caller ID claimed to be from 406-623-3644 and “Hardin, MT”. Here’s the transcript of the voicemail message that the caller left:

Hey guys this is Sara Ellis here.

Hey we spoke on the phone last week [lie!] about possibly trying to lower your interest rates and reducing your monthly payments on your credit card.

So I wanted to let you know that I did find a solution.

Um we’ve got a program that can lower those interest rates to as low as 1.5% and possibly cut your monthly payments in half.

And since you were only making the minimum payments [lie!] this would be a great opportunity for you.

This will be my last courtesy call so please give me a ring today.

You can reach me here at 1-877-723-1419.

Again, my number is 1-877-723-1419.

If you Google 406-623-3644 or 877-723-1419 you will see that a bunch of people are getting this call. It looks like it may be a new scam that just started up.

I’ve filed complaints with the FCC, the FTC and the Massachusetts attorney general’s office.

Beware of unsolicited calls about consolidating credit card debt! At best, it’s a slimy debt consolidation service looking to charge you ridiculous fees for their service. At worst, it’s criminals looking to get their hands on your credit card numbers so they can then use them to make fraudulent purchases.

 

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Posted in Consumer activism, Fraud | 7 Comments »

Carolina Furniture Works ships broken dresser as new

Sunday, October 9th, 2011

Executive summary: Carolina Furniture Works ships damaged furniture as new and apparently thinks this is not something they need to apologize for. In addition to shipping damaged furniture, their workmanship is poor. Their claim that their furniture is “rigidly inspected” before shipment is a joke. If you care about the new furniture you buy looking new and having a modicum of quality, don’t buy anything made by Carolina.

(more…)

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Solar panel brain-dump

Monday, October 3rd, 2011

I’m in the process of having solar panels installed on my roof. One of my friends is considering doing the same and asked me to share what I’ve learned so far. I figured I’d post it here since it may be useful or of interest to others as well. If you have any questions about anything I cover or don’t cover in this document, please feel free to email me or post a comment and I’ll try to respond.

(more…)

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Posted in Boston, Consumer activism, Government activism | 1 Comment »

NJ govt: Our job is to enforce red tape, not investigate criminals

Wednesday, September 21st, 2011

I sent a detailed complaint letter to the New Jersey Attorney General’s office about a company doing business in their state which, it seems clear, is knowingly committing fraud against consumers on an ongoing basis.

My letter contained all of the information that the AG’s office could possibly need to investigate the company in question.

They apparently forwarded my complaint to the Department of Consumer Affairs of Ocean County, New Jersey. Hey, Attorney General Paula Dow, it’s nice to see you passing the buck instead of doing your job and investigating large-scale fraud!

The Ocean County DCA sent me a form letter and a complaint form to fill out and send back. There isn’t a single piece of information requested on the form which I had not already provided in my letter. The letter said that only after I sent back the form would they “review the information to determine whether we have jurisdiction to process the complaint.”

I called the investigator listed on the form and told him that (a) every question on the form was already answered in my letter; (b) I had already received a refund from the company and had written to them only to encourage them to investigate the company to prevent others from being ripped off; and (c) I had no intention of wasting my time and money sending back their form.

The investigator responded, “We can’t investigate your complaint without a signed form,” to which I responded, “My letter was signed. If you’d rather enforce bureaucratic red tape than investigate criminals, that’s your choice, but I’m all done here,” and hung up.

Hey, Ocean County DCA Director Stephen Scaturro, It’s nice to see that your investigators are so dedicated to preventing consumers from committing the unforgivable sin of notifying you of large-scale fraud without using the proper form!

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Posted in Consumer activism, Fraud | 3 Comments »

UnbeatableSale.com: scam artists extraordinaire

Wednesday, September 7th, 2011

We were recently in the market for a new dresser for our daughter. After a great deal of research, we settled upon a particular Carolina Cottage dresser. Since we knew exactly which dresser we wanted, we decide to buy it on-line, which wouldn’t cost any more than a brick-and-mortar store, since we’d have to have it delivered in any case, and might cost even less.

After researching online prices for this dresser, we found one site, PriceFalls.com, with a price significantly lower than all of the others. It turns out that PriceFalls storefronts other merchants as well as selling its own stuff, and this particular deal was actually being offered by Unbeatable Sale, a.k.a. UnbeatableSales.com, Bon’Cui, PlayingKitchen.com, ComfortMarket, TechnoOutlet.com, FunToyMall.com, ToolsChest, GreaterMedical, TravelBagsMall.com, HalloweenMall, PetShopUSA.com, WeddingPartyMall, and lord only knows what else.

I’ll let the letter I sent earlier today to the Cyber Fraud Unit of the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs pick up the story from here… (more…)

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Posted in Consumer activism, Fraud | 8 Comments »

Tony Mitchell threatens to sue me over my blog postings

Tuesday, August 30th, 2011

Executive summary: Tony Mitchell threatened to sue me for exposing his company’s slimy telemarketing practices on my blog. I had to pay a lawyer to defend myself against his threats. See below for his letter and the one my lawyer sent in response. If you hate slimy telemarketers and opponents of free speech as much as I do, please consider clicking the “Donate” button to the right and kicking in a few bucks toward my legal defense. (Note: The previous sentence will be removed if/when I’ve recouped my legal expenses.)

I have written before about Mitchell Communications Group, a.k.a. Faithful Marketing, a.k.a. Vandell Communications, all different names for the same telemarketing firm owned and operated by one Tony Mitchell. Hereafter I will refer to them as “Vandell”, since that’s the name they’re using as I write this.

I won’t rehash here everything I’ve written about Vandell, but here are the high points:

  • Vandell’s one and only line of business appears to be calling people on the phone, telling them that they’ve won a fabulous prize, and convincing them to attend a 90-minute sales pitch for a vacation club / timeshare rental club / whatever to claim it.
  • Vandell claims that they only call people who have entered contests, but there are many testimonials on my blog and all over the internet from people who say they entered no contests and yet were called anyway.
  • Vandell claims in their scripted sales pitch that they are not a telemarketing company, and yet they describe themselves as a marketing company on their web site, and their main business is making telephone calls; if they’re not a “telemarketing company,” then I don’t know what is.
  • In a misguided effort to respond to the material I’ve posted about them, Vandell has posted numerous forged comments on my blog, including one comment purporting to be from a police officer.

As if all this wasn’t bad enough, Vandell has decided that the best way to silence their critics is to threaten lawsuits against any web site which criticizes them. Such sites are easy to find by searching for “Vandell Communications” or “Mitchell Communications”, or searching for the caller ID of the number from which they call you.

I’m an easy target for such chicanery, since I blog under my own name and my contact information is readily available. A couple of months ago, I received the following letter. (more…)

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Posted in Consumer activism, Fraud | 8 Comments »

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